Week 16: Total Domination By The Defense
Great defensive effort gets well deserved shutout.by Steve Saslow

Here are our position by position grades:

Quarterback:

Thad Lewis threw deep early and often unfortunately he was widely inaccurate on all his early passes except one, a 57 yarder to Woods on the Bills first field goal drive. He settled down and threw the ball ok the rest of the way finishing with 15 of 25 passing for 193 yards and one interception. Grade C: He managed the game pretty well.

Running Backs:

C.J. Spiller has taken a secondary role down the stretch to Jackson but did have some success with 77 yards on 20 carries. He did run out of bounds with a carry late in the first half which was not a heads up play. He added 26 yards on three catches which made him more effective in the passing game than almost every other week. Fred Jackson played threw a painful rib injury that reportedly was broken ribs. He not only gutted it out, he played very well. He went over 100 yards with 111 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown. Grade A: Very nice one-two punch once again for one of the best running teams in the league.

Receivers:

Robert Woods had 70 yards on three catches including the 57 yard catch and run. He had a boneheaded penalty where he punched a player and was ejected.T.J. Graham was the lone player with experience playing most of the game and had only two catches for 27 yards. Marquise Goodwin left the game with a knee injury in the first half. Scott Chandler made a big 15 yard catch on the Bills only touchdown drive and added a 16 yard reception later. Lee Smith made a nice downfield catch for 24 yards. Tony Moeaki surprisingly didn't hit the field as he did not play despite being active. I thought they would want to get a look at him. Chris Hogan was called for an illegal motion penalty that negated a good run by Jackson. He had two catches for 8 yards. Grade D: Very undermanned so luckily didn't have to do a lot.

Offensive Line:

Kraig Urbik got the start but was spelled from time to time. J.J. 'Unga got some reps after not getting any last week. Cordy Glenn was beaten for an early pressure. Erik Pears did a nice job keeping Cameron Wake away from Lewis. Grade A: Nice effort giving up only one sack and leading the way to 203 yards rushing.

Defensive Line:

Mario Williams had a sack and another good pressure. Marcell Dareus did not play in the first quarter because he violated team rules. He did come in at the start of the second quarter and had three tackles and one pressure. Kyle Williams had a sack on Miami's second drive and one more later on. He had three tackles for loss and was a dominant factor in a very dominant defense. Jerry Hughes had his 10th sack of the season. Corbin Bryant got the start for Dareus and got a tackle on the first play of the game. Grade A+: They had four sacks and didn't allow anything on the ground.

Linebackers:

Manny Lawson was very quiet with just one assist as he wasn't a big part of the defensive gameplan. Kiko Alonso had a very quiet 8 tackles as he wasn't needed to do too much this week. Nigel Bradham was more involved again and had three tackles. Grade B: Held the middle of the field very well.

Secondary:

Jairus Byrd had only two tackles but was solid in coverage. Stephon Gilmore did a nice job in coverage most of the day but was beaten for a 50 yard pass. Leodis McKelvin was solid in coverage and finally got his first interception of the season late in the game. Nickell Robey had two sacks, a pressure that almost resulted in a safety, and a tackle for loss as he was used as a blitzer almost all day long. Jim Leonhard got the start for the injured Aaron Williams and had a big interception along with four tackles. Da'Norris Searcy had a sack on Miami's first drive. Grade A: Only allowed 89 net yards passing.

Special Teams:

Brian Moorman shanked a 13 yard punt which gave him a gross punting average of 36.3 and a net of 33. There was a touchback and none went inside the 20 Dan Carpenter was 4 for 4 on field goal attempts including a nice 45 yarder with the swirling winds. Also hit three more from 21, 22, and 26 yards out. Leodis McKelvin fumbled two punts but luckily didn't lose any. That is likely why Jim Leonhard was back there late in the game. He had zero yards on four punt returns. Coverage Units allowed 25 yard average on three returns by Thigpen but didn't allow any punt return yardage. Grade B: Did a nice job in helping the team win.

Coaching:

Doug Marrone got his team a second straight win and they were ready to play. Would have liked to see him play Moeaki a bit more and really go for it on 4th and inches in the first half instead of trying to get them to jump offsides. Also settled for three instead of going for seven too much in the second half. Nathaniel Hackett had a gameplan of going deep early to open up the running game and they were successful enough. Mike Pettine had his best game as the team's defensive coordinator. Unbelievable effort from his crew. Grade A: Matching last season's win total in a rebuilding year is an accomplishment.